i'm chris matthews in washington. let me start tonight with this big one. is barack obama going for it? is he suddenly becoming one of the great presidents in history? i'm not talking about mt. rushmore but perhaps the level right below it. i'm talking, to use his word, transformational. and is he using the country's historic demographic shift to do it? can he combine the new american power of hispanics and other minorities with the immediate aspirations of women to lob himself into the highest level of presidential greatness? can he bring on an era of democratic, even liberal dominance, for years to come? this is what his adversaries fear. they look at his working of the gun safety crusade, his positioning on immigration reform, his distancing himself from the triumphing over -- even triumphing over the hard often bizarre right wing of this country to do it. are they on to something? could this president be the president of our time? tonight we examine on president's day just where barack obama intends to go. where he intends to be once he, too, joins the